Merry Christmas...a bit late.

I had all intentions of writing multiple holiday and other blogs.  I had good intention to spend time with my family and document it all along the way.  I had plans to create some fantastic writings that were on par with A Christmas Carol...(ok, maybe that is an exaggeration).  I had plans to keep up with the blog over the previous few weeks and write more for your reading...umm pleasure?  But then I realized that planning for the holidays and taking care of a 4 month old is a much more important and necessary task.

So let me be the last to wish you a Merry Christmas, albeit a little late.

I have never been consumed with the presents at Christmastime, well except maybe as a starry eyed youth waiting for Santa to arrive.  Our Christmases growing up were always modest and exciting.  We never knew what Santa would put under the tree for us.  But of all the toys, clothes, pillows, underwear and gifts that we received as children the one thing about Christmas that really stuck with me was the holiday parties with family. It didn't really matter what gifts you got because you had the chance to spend so much time with family.  After I moved out of "home" the parties were still there, the family was still there, but part of me felt like part of the mystery and joy of Christmas was missing or maybe hidden from me.

I realized this year that the part of me that was missing from Christmas was that childlike wonder, that shear joy of being home and being with family and the excitement of Christmas morning.  This year on 8/17 was my Christmas, because Noah came into our lives.  He opened my eyes to the world of fatherhood, he energized my spirit and renewed my joy.  Christmas this year was very special because spending it with all my nephews, cousins, and with the newly minted grandparents there was renewed spirits.  I can't explain the feeling this year but it was different than the last few.  My mom always told me that growing up there was a moment when she could see that I had the spirit of Christmas.  Something clicked, something was different about me.

This year we simplified Christmas at home.  Christine and I didn't exchange gifts between each other, not because we couldn't afford to but because everything we needed was already under our roof.  We purchased most of our gifts online to avoid the stress and chaos of the malls.  (That and trying to take a 4 month old shopping for a few hours is beyond stressful).  We spent Christmas Eve in the company of my family in the home I grew up in.  The house was warmed with the laughter of little children carrying on throughout the house.  The barking of dogs chasing the kids and the happy conversation of brothers and sisters and grandparents warmed by a few Christmas beverages and foods.

I sometimes just sit there and watch the interactions among family.  The subtle glances and touches between my sister and her new boyfriend.  The look between my brothers eyes and their wives while they watch their children play.  Seeing Noah's eyes light up when he lands in his great grandmas arms and she smothers him with hugs and kisses.  Watching my parents open up the personalized photo album that my sister in law so diligently worked on.  The tears of joy as my mom flipped through the pages laughing and crying at all the pictures of her family.  The excited expression of laughter and joy on my fathers face as he repeated over and over, "this is just awesome, this is just so great"..."what a great idea."  Spending time talking to my brother Andy who we see less than we would all like to because his job is so time consuming.  Watching my brothers interact with their sons wrestling and playing on the floor.  Enjoying the looks of happiness on my sisters face as she plays with her nephews and squeezes Noah.

This is where I found my Christmas spirit this year, it wasn't wrapped up in paper or tied in a bow.  It was all around me all weekend, all I needed to do was open my eyes and take it in and enjoy.

From our Family to Yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Ron, Christine, and Noah.

Wordless Monday.

Ok, so not entirely wordless, and most people do wordless Wednesday...maybe I can just call this Monday Mumblings...anyways, here are some pictures from the weekend!

Meanwhile At the North Pole

I had my first "paying" gig as a photographer yesterday.  Noah, Christine, and I played host to Mark, Kristin, and Carly for their Christmas pictures.  I was paid in PF Changs, quite a delicious reward for time spent with good friends, plus Noah got time with his giiirrrlllfriend.  She spent most of her time just begging him for the credit card so she could go shopping.

Carly was a very good sport the entire time, she posed pretty for the camera and smiled alot.

(She was pooped at the end, and let us know when she had had enough!)

It's so nice that we have friends and family with kids who are all so close in age.  I am looking forward to our kids all growing up together.  I am also really looking forward to the time when Noah can understand Christmas and really appreciate the season!  We spent this past weekend at my brother and sister in laws house seeing Santa!  Most kids ran away from Santa terrified because he was a stranger, Noah being the happy go lucky kid he is just stared at him.

Here are some of the highlights from their party.

 So this is what it's all about it...oh yeah...presents!

 I've been told he has "Orpik" eyes.

 Who is this guy?

 Emry wasn't too excited about Santa, but we love gifts!

 Get that camera out of my face!

 Love this picture!  Santa's eyes are closed and you can just see the love.

 The happy hosts with Santa.

 Aren't the holidays really just about the food?

 Avery and Mommy

Happy guy award goes to this little man!

The 25 and 25.

I must apologize in advance for the lack of blog posts in the last few weeks, things have been hectic at work and at home so I have been lacking time to write.

If you are a regular reader of the blog you know that I have definitely plateaued in my weight loss since Noah was born.  Whether it was an actual plateau or a result of cheating and less exercising I am not sure.  I have been very diligent with the plan the last month and still no weight loss.  The week before Thanksgiving I decided to try a change-up in my workouts.  I had been trying to get 3 or 4 thirty minute workouts in each week.  Due to my work schedule and my daddy time with Noah (when Christine works).  I was struggling to consistently get those workouts in.  I decided I needed a way to get in similar calorie burning but maybe cut down the number of workouts per week to 2 or 3 instead of 3 or 4.

I have been rotating my workouts between cycling and running since I would like to try to do a Sprint and or Olympic Triathlon next year.  I get bored very easily on the bike trainer and the treadmill, I would so much rather be outside.  But, since I am home alone with Noah one to two days a week it's not good parenting to leave the house while he is napping.  So I am relegated to the confines of the game room and the indoor workout.

In an effort to quell my boredom I decided to try a workout that I call the 25 and 25.  I put Noah down in his crib for his morning nap (about 2 hours usually).  I grab the baby monitor and head downstairs for my workout.  I usually start off on the bike for 5 minutes at a really light pace and resistance to get my blood flowing.  Then I shift to a higher gear and ramp up the intensity.  I ride for 25 minutes at varying intensity adjusting my cadence as my legs begin to burn.  As soon as I finish the 25 minute pedaling session, I immediately swap my cycling shoes for my running shoes, hop onto the treadmill and begin to run.  I usually crank the speed up on the treadmill to 7 or 7.5mph and adjust the speed and incline during the run as my legs fatigue.  I will occasionally ramp up the speed to as high as 8mph or higher if I am feeling really good.  After my 25 minutes on the treadmill (about 2.75-3 miles) I cool down walking for 5 minutes.  That gives me a 1 hour workout and usually enough time to run upstairs and shower before the boy wakes up from his nap.    I do this workout a maximum of twice per week, with the 3rd workout day rotating between a run or biking or a bodyweight resistance style workout.

Since starting this plan 2 weeks ago I am back on the weight loss train.  The first week I was able to shed about 0.6lb.  The second week (Thanksgiving) I was able to shed an additional 0.5lb.  I am hoping this trend continues as we head into the holiday party season.  Making sure that I watch what I eat during the holiday parties is going to be a real challenge...

Thanks for reading, check back later there may be a second post today because I was camera happy with Noah yesterday!

Thankful.

I know it's cliche to write a blog about being thankful at Thanksgiving...frankly I am thankful everyday for my life, my wife, and my son.  But in the spirit of being thankful for the things that matter most, I am thankful for (in no particular order-this isn't a ranking).

My wife for putting up with me and for letting me be me.  My son, because he has filled a space in my life that I didn't know was missing, he completes our family and he is our pride and joy.  My family because they helped make me who I am.  I am thankful for in laws that have accepted me into their family as one of their own.  I am thankful I have a job in a company that respects me and what I do.  I am thankful that my career helps me keep food on our table and our bills paid, many aren't so lucky.  I am thankful for my friends because they keep me in check and the keep me grounded.  I am thankful for my health, many aren't so blessed.  I am thankful for my renewed fitness and lifestyle I struggle everyday with the thin line between veggies and chips...here's hoping I keep eating the veggies.

I struggle at times with the holidays being married now because we have to do our best to divide our time among both families.  I don't wish it any other way, because I am thankful that we have this dilemma as well.  We will spend our afternoon/dinner with the in laws, then head over to my grams for dessert and so that my extended family (cousins etc) can meet Noah.  I am incredibly grateful that my family gets along, that we don't bicker and fight.  I am blessed that my family isn't divided due to conflict.  I want my son to grow up in a family like that, I want him to enjoy family functions like I did as a kid.  I just want for him to have many of the wonderful, loving experiences I had as a child.  Being that this is his first ever Thanksgiving I am sure he won't remember it, but there will be plenty of pictures to prove that he was there.

Eventually we will need to create our own traditions as a family for the holidays, tradition is what shapes us, tradition is what makes the holidays so important.  I want Noah to understand the reasons why we get together at the holidays and the only way he will see that is to experience tradition and family.  Our families don't have any unusual or unique Thanksgiving traditions yet.  The most important thing for us is the experience with family, it's what brings us to the table and keeps us out too late that night.  During the holidays I feel like there is so much going on that we don't have time to connect with everyone close to us.  I hope no one thinks less of us because of it.

We love all our family and all our friends and we are grateful and thankful everyday for all of you.

Happy Thanksgiving all!  Now, go out and eat too much, don't drink and drive, and don't regret it the next day...what's a few extra miles on the trail when you can have a full belly and lifetime of wonderful memories with family and friends!  I hope your Thanksgiving is as wonderful as it can be!

Noah says Happy Thanksgiving to everyone too!

Adventures in fatherhood.

Overheard by the dustbunnies in the room while dad was bottle feeding Noah before bed...

Me:  He is gagging on the bottle for some reason, I think he is going to throw up.

Christine:  Nah, he's fine he's done that before.

Noah:  Smile, sudden cry...smile.

Noah: gurgle gurgle

Me: (hearing gurgles, brain saying move face move face move face!!)

Noah:  SPPPEEEWWWWWWWWWW

Me: (thinking...ohhhhh no)

Christine:  giggle giggle.

Me: ohhhh it's in my mouth! my nose! my eyes!!!!

Christine:  Hands me a bib laughing to herself.

Me: Can you get me a towel?

Ahh fatherhood...I am sure these stories will just keep getting better...nothing like some digested formula up your nose to make your night.

Sleep well all!

Time Flies.

     It's amazing to me how quickly times goes by, and I mean in general not just since we had Noah.  We are rapidly approaching my 2 favorite holidays, Thanksgiving (eating, and family) and Christmas(eating, family, presents).  We are also rapidly approaching a milestone day for Noah as well, he will be 3 months old in 8 days.

As a first time parent I sometimes just observe in awe as he develops and changes almost by the hour.  A month ago he could only hold his head up for a few seconds before he would get tired and frustrated and drop his head to the floor.  He can now hold his head up for as long as you will let him lay on his belly.  He is beginning to "superman" when we lay him on his stomach.  He definitely recognizes our voices as well.  I came into the room the other day and he immediately spun his head around to find me, and smiled.  Of course I take second fiddle to mom, if she walks in the room he gets all goo goo eyed and so does she.  Watching Noah on his play mat on the floor as he lays on his back kicking and smiling smacking his little hands off the noise makers hanging overhead.  He sees himself in his little mirror and he smiles back and sometimes yells things out like he is trying to get his own attention (of course he has no self awareness yet).  He is quite the verbal little dude, most days I can sit him on my legs facing me and we will "talk" for long periods.  He yells out something and I respond in kind, he smiles, coo's and yells some other random sound.  I repeat my sound and we continue this process until he gets bored.  It's really fun and I am beginning to get pretty creative with my stories when I interpret what he is "saying."  You can almost see the little neurons and pathways in his brain developing and "connecting the dots."

Christine is an OT, and she has charts for baby/newborn development.  Charts for milestones and everything else under the sun.  I occasionally glance over them to make sure that Noah is developing on schedule.  He is, as much as I would like to believe that he is exceptional, he's not...he's right on track and that is perfect in my book.

Being a first time father of a 3 month old is finally becoming alot of fun.  The first few weeks to months are mostly stressful with little reward other than the satisfaction that comes from knowing you have a child.  As the baby begins to develop though, as you see the changes in the child and the child recognizes you then it becomes an otherworldly experience.  I have been told (and I am) treasuring this time, taking it all in as much as possible because the rumor on the street it that once he becomes mobile life gets crazy again.  Until then I am just going to enjoy this time, enjoy my son, and enjoy the sleep we are getting now that he is going 8-10 hours a night.

longest ride yet.

In keeping with my workout routine, I sometimes feel like I have to make up for missed exercise days with an extended workout.  I haven't been on the bike in about a week and was feeling the itch to really get out and ride.  I gave my friend Mark a call and he was definitely in for a longer ride since we skipped our last ride for pancakes and time with our wives and kids.

I have been under the weather the last 4 or 5 days with a mild chest cold so I was curious as to how my lungs would hold up.  I must say that there is nothing that will make you feel better with a chest cold than fresh air and a 20 mile bike ride.  Yes, 20 miles.  This is my longest ride to date this year.  We headed out to the Montour trail at Logan Road and road well into Peters Township.  10 miles out and 10 miles back, total time with 1 stop for pictures and a snack 1 hour and 45 minutes.  Not too shabby if you ask me.  The sun was shining and the temperature was just right to prevent us from overheating.  If you haven't been to the Montour trail in the Bethel or Peters Township area I highly recommend it, the scenery is just amazing.

The ride gave me an additional 24 points to use during this week on the weight watchers program.  I am going to try to avoid using all 24 points because I am trying to get out of this weight loss slump I am in.  I made sure to snack on a fiber one bar while we were riding and got plenty of water.  Afterwards I had a low fat turkey burger (high protein) on a bagel thin and a bowl of Campbell's select beef barley (light) soup.   I also had a glass of skim milk right away to help get my muscles healing before I jumped in the shower.

Dinner last night was a spinach and tomato salad with light ranch and some leftover low fat turkey sausage with roasted peppers, onion, and garlic.

I don't know if it is the cold I am fighting or just the quality of protein I was eating yesterday but I feel very satisfied after those meals.  Maybe I will have to try them out again when my system is firing on all cylinders.

Post #2 10/27/2011 Fitdad update.

I seem to have become a cluster-poster.  Making all my posts for the past few days in one single day, so if you didn't read the earlier post from today you can find it here.  This post is going to be more fitdad, than dad, but there is still a small amount of dad thrown in at the end.

I have now been going on close to a week with my "refocused" approach to weight watchers for men.  Sunday will be the determining factor if it is working.  I have been diligently tracking my points and snacks and I also lowered my daily points target by 2 to see if that helps as well.  I have been on the bike trainer once for 35 minutes and ran two days ago, all since my last post.  I had made plans to go ride with my friend Mark on Wednesday, but rain and a hankering for pancakes kept us indoors.  Can't say that I regretting missing that workout for Pumpkin Pancakes and a great brunch spent with Mark and Kristin and their daughter Carly.  She and Noah are just too cute when they are together...all the old ladies were swooning.  Mark and I figure we can really pick up some hot blue hairs during brunches.

I set out on a mission during my run a few days ago to see how fast I could run a 5k.  I did that a few weeks ago when I was in Jersey for a wedding and ran a 25:38.  My goal was to run faster than that, I pushed and pushed, and finished in 25:25.  I was pretty stoked!!  Actually a little sore today because I haven't run that hard in a while.  I feel as though if I keep pushing myself I will be able to get my 5k time down into the 24's by the new year and hopefully further down that next year.

I need to get in at least 1 or 2 more workouts this week to feel comfortable with my progress.  Today is out because I work all day.  I will either have to get up early before work Friday (unlikely), or workout after work.  I am due to spin on the bike for at least 30 minutes followed by a run before Sunday.

My diet has been erratic the last few weeks, but it's difficult to always stay on the program when you are attending parties (baptism) and going out to eat.  Thank heaven that fruits and veggies are 0 points on weightwatchers plus because bananas, apples, kiwi, celery, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and pears have been my hunger busters the past few days.  I have also relied on fiber one bars (4pts), baby bell (light) cheeses (1pt), and eggs (2pts) and chicken breasts (vary due to size), to fill my diet with fiber, protein, and flavor!  I rarely use mayo on sandwiches because its has a points value, I prefer hot sauce and mustard whenever possible.  I have really tried hard to cut out the mindless snacking that I consistently don't think about when I am hungry as well.

Now on to the additional "dad" section of part 2 of today's blog.  Here are the developed pictures from Noah's 2 month photo shoot!  I have had a few people ask me where we got the onesies marked with months for the pictures.  Those are actually stickers, we received them as a gift from our good friend Kristin Sullivan!  She said she got them from www.etsy.com just search for baby month stickers.  You will see a large selection of them.  (I don't make any money from you clicking that link just wanted to share!)

Lets Get Baptized!

This past Sunday 10/23/2011 was Noah's Baptism.  He performed marvelously, only crying once when I passed him off to Rev. Thompson.  He was a hit among the congregation in his dapper all white tuxedo and bow tie.  The Baptism was followed up by a nice and small family gathering at my in-laws house.  We are incredibly grateful for them opening up their home to us because we would have been pretty cramped in our house!

Here are the pictures that capped off the day, complete with corny captions by yours truly.

 Fist Bump daddy-o

 I am sooooo hungry I could just EAT this BOWTIE! nomnomnomnom.

 Daddy, I am working up a surprise for you!

 Ok, I will smile nice once or twice.

 Wanna see my ehhhh face?

 My tie is unclipped, cause I'm cool like that.

 Scruntchy shoulders!

 HEY DAD!

 My Really Sad face...

My pitiful face.